


Time for Bed

by Neva_Borne



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Adorable, Awkward Zuko, Bedtime, Bedtime Stories, Children, Cute, F/M, Fire Lady Katara, Fire Lord Zuko, Fire Nation, First Date, First Kiss, Flowers, Fluff, Fluff prompt, One Shot, POV Katara, Reminiscing, Romance, Romantic Gesture, Steam Babies - Freeform, Tumblr Prompt, Young Love, Zutara, Zutara Prompt, prompt, story time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:54:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26218963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neva_Borne/pseuds/Neva_Borne
Summary: The kids won't go to sleep until they get a bedtime story.
Relationships: Katara & Zuko (Avatar), Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 169
Collections: Zutara One Shots





	Time for Bed

“Mommy, I’m not tired.” Izumi, their eldest daughter and ever the rebel, sat up in bed as soon as Katara turned away to leave the room.

Katara raised an eyebrow. “Yes you are. You just don’t realize it.”

From the other bed popped another head as their son, Lu Ten, sat up as well, rubbing at his eyes. 

“No, we aren’t!” He whined. 

“We wanna know how you and Daddy met.” Izumi beamed, her amber eyes glittering. 

Katara sighed but smiled; her daughter knew exactly how to win her over. She looked almost exactly like Zuko, though her skin was a shade darker and her hair was not quite black but instead a deep, rich brown. 

“Yeah!” Lu Ten echoed, blue eyes wide as he backed up his sister. 

It was amusing to see how much he adored his older sister. He would always back her up whenever she made plans to get up to mischief or, like now, when she wanted a story about their parents. He loved his little sister, too, and always held her hand whenever they took family walks through the gardens. But he and Izumi were closer in age at eight and seven. Kya was only three. 

Just then, Zuko opened the door, a very sleepy Kya resting on his shoulder. Katara’s heart fluttered at the sight. It never got old, seeing her husband so tender and caring with their children. 

She remembered when she’d first told him she was pregnant and the excitement and fear and doubt that had flickered across his face. He’d been terrified of being a parent, convinced he would end up like his father. Katara had spent the majority of her pregnancy and a good several months afterward convincing him that he was nothing like his father.

And he wasn’t. Zuko was an amazing father to their children, immediately and effortlessly slipping into the caretaker role and not only helping with the babies but also helping Katara. He made sure she ate and slept and bathed and had time to herself, even if it meant he had to skip a meeting or take the baby into the meeting with him. 

As such, Izumi had been a frequent visitor during his political meetings. Even at only eight years old, she showed intelligence and interest in the subjects discussed, and both Katara and Zuko were incredibly proud. She would make an excellent Fire Lord one day.

“Hey,” Zuko said quietly. “I think she’s finally asleep.” He cast his gaze over his two older children, raising his eyebrow as their bright eyes sparkled up at him. “And why are you two still awake?”

“Mommy’s going to tell us a story!” Lu Ten said brightly.

Katara folded her arms and regarded her son with raised brows. “Mommy said no such thing.”

“Pleeeeaaassseeeeeee?” Izumi whined, making a pouty face.

Katara glanced at Zuko, an amused smirk on her face. “They want to know how we first met, dear.”

Zuko, always pale, almost seemed to go paler for a moment before he flushed a deep crimson, no doubt remembering his attack on her South Pole village and the pirates he had later hired to help capture her and Aang. It was so many years ago, and it was something Katara remembered with amusement, though she knew Zuko was still flustered and embarrassed whenever she brought it up.

“But,” Katara continued, approaching Izumi’s bed and settling down on the edge. “I think that’s best left for when you’re older. So, how about I tell you about our first date?”

“Yes please!” Izumi exclaimed, drowning out Zuko’s embarrassed groan, and bounced up in the bed as she moved to snuggle closer to Katara. “Was it romantic? Did he bring you a panda lily? Did you  _ kiss?”  _

Lu Ten had bounded out of his own bed and had pressed up against Izumi’s other side, and at a nod from Katara, Zuko settled down on the other side, placing Kya down gently beneath the blankets and snuggling in. 

Katara wrapped her arm around Izumi and thought back to that day long ago.

“Well… The war had been over about a month. You remember I told you that Daddy and I helped Uncle Aang win the war?” 

The children nodded enthusiastically. They loved their Uncle Aang, and especially loved when he and Toph brought their own children, Tenzin, Bumi, and Lin, to come play. 

“Alright. So, we had just gotten back from visiting Uncle Iroh in Ba Sing Se, and everyone else was leaving to go back home.” She looked up and met Zuko’s gaze, smiling warmly at him. “But I didn’t leave. I used the excuse that I wanted to make sure Daddy healed properly from his fight. I hoped he would see why I really wanted to stay, which was of course that I really liked him.”

Zuko let out an incomprehensible muttering at this, and Katara raised her eyebrow. “Wanted to add something?”

He flushed. “I… no.”

She grinned and looked back down at Izumi and Lu Ten. “Anyway, after a couple weeks I figured out that he was either completely oblivious  _ or  _ he didn’t like me back. Little did I know that he  _ was  _ clueless, but he was also planning to try to win me over with this big romantic gesture.”

“I wasn’t clueless!” Zuko protested, though he didn’t even sound convinced himself. “I was just nervous!”

Izumi giggled. “You were scared of Mommy?”

Zuko glanced at Katara, then back down at Izumi. “Your mother is the most terrifying person I’ve ever met. You do  _ not  _ want to get on her bad side. And I don’t just mean misbehaving, though she’s plenty scary then too. I mean, she used to  _ hate  _ me.”

Katara laughed at Izumi and Lu Ten’s confused faces. 

“Like I said,  _ that’s  _ a story for another time.” She let out a slow, relaxing breath. “Where was I? Right. The grand gesture. 

“I had finally had enough of the waiting and hoping so one morning I marched out of my room and out to the gardens where I assumed he would be. You know how much Daddy loves the gardens. So, I went out there, and I saw that the pond was full of little flowers - no, not panda lilies. Fire lilies and water lilies, all mixed together. And there was a blanket laid out on the ground by the pond, and a basket filled with food.

“I was really confused at this point, because I couldn’t see Zuko anywhere, but then I heard his voice behind me and I turned, and there he was, walking beside Auntie Ty Lee with a literal  _ armload  _ of even  _ more  _ fire and water lilies.”

“It wasn’t an  _ armload.”  _ Zuko mumbled, his cheeks bright red.

Katara raised an eyebrow, then leaned down to the children and whispered, loudly and mock conspiratorially, “It was an armload.”

They giggled. 

“Then what happened?” Lu Ten asked excitedly.

“Well,” Katara said thoughtfully, straightening back up as she thought about it. “I thought maybe he was on a date with Ty Lee, but that didn’t make sense at all, so I just sort of stared at them. They both just stared right back at me, and your Dad turned the same shade of red as his robes.”

More giggling as Zuko grumbled something about exaggerating and shook his head.

“Then Ty Lee left, and Zuko sort of just… dumped the flowers into my arms. I think he was trying to say something, but he was too flustered to get the words out.”

“You’re really pretty…” Zuko mumbled under his breath, as if in defense of his past self.

Izumi and Lu Ten squirmed and giggled nonsensically. “You called Mommy pretty!” 

Zuko raised his eyes to Katara’s and smiled. Her heart melted, as it always did. That smile was the one he reserved just for her. It had taken her a long time to realize that it was  _ her _ smile, but once she had, she had realized he’d smiled at her like that for far longer than she had expected.

“Mommy  _ is  _ pretty.” Zuko said softly. “And she likes making me sound a lot less capable than I am.”

Katara laughed. “I’m amazed you didn’t faint, honestly.” 

“See, that’s unfair. I was nowhere close to fainting.” He protested, pouting slightly.

She waved her hand and shook her head.

“What happened next, Mommy?” Izumi interrupted, desperate to hear more. “Did Daddy kiss you?”

Katara smirked and briefly met Zuko’s gaze. “Actually,  _ I  _ kissed  _ him.”  _

A shocked gasp came from the two children as they stared at her, open-mouthed. 

_ “You  _ kissed  _ him?”  _ Lu Ten repeated, eyes wide. “But you’re a girl!”

“Mhmm,” Katara said, nodding as she brushed Lu Ten’s curly brown hair out of his face. “But Daddy was too scared, standing there mumbling something about the picnic, and that I was early, and that he was still setting up and had hoped that I would show up and everything would be perfect. So I kissed him, and that shut him up.”

“I was  _ explaining  _ what I was doing!” Zuko protested.

“Yes, and I thought it was cute!” Katara grinned. 

“So then what?” Izumi pestered. 

“That was pretty much it. We sat and we talked, and we ate the food from the picnic basket and we fed the turtleducks. Once your Dad got over his initial shock, he was a lot more talkative. But he still kept doing really cute things like holding my hand or going out of his way to get me more food or seeds for the turtleducks. I still have some of the flowers, dried out in one of my books.”

“Wow,” exhaled Izumi, her eyes wide as she stared into space, as if imagining her parents in the story. “I hope  _ I  _ find a boy who thinks I’m so pretty he can’t talk to me.”

Katara leaned down and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Me too, Little Spark,” she murmured. “They’re the best kind.”

Lu Ten made a disgusted face. “If I’m ever afraid of a girl like that, push me into a lake.”

“What would that do?” Izumi nudged him. “You’re a waterbender.”

“So? I could still hide under the water!” Lu Ten grumbled. “I don’t wanna see any girl that makes me afraid to talk to her.”

Katara shook her head and gently stood up from the bed. “Come on now, it’s time for bed.” She pulled the sheets back up over all three of the children - Kya was still passed out asleep - and kissed their foreheads. “You’ve got plenty of time before you have to worry about these things.”

As she and Zuko turned off the lights to the room and left, she took his hand in hers. He rubbed his thumb across her knuckles as they shut the door behind them, listening to the muffled giggles and whispers of their children. 

“You made me sound so awkward.” Zuko said, looking down at her with an almost piteous look in his eyes.

She smiled and blinked up at him. “You  _ are  _ awkward. And adorable.”

“I’m a powerful Fire Lord. Fire Lords aren’t adorable.”

She grinned and rose up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek.  _ “I  _ think you are.”

He took the opportunity to wrap his arms tightly around her and she buried her face in his chest, closing her eyes as she breathed in his smell. 

“Agni, I love you so much.”

“I love you too, Zuko.” She sighed happily.

“Next time though,” Zuko said firmly.  _ “I’m  _ telling the story.”

She laughed, keeping an arm wrapped around his waist as they moved off down the corridor to their own bedroom, just a few doors down. 

**Author's Note:**

> Another Tumblr Prompt! I imagine that Katara is about 29 and Zuko is 31 in this fic.
> 
> This one was very cute and I loved writing it - fluff seems to be a general theme with these prompts!
> 
> I've never written about their children before though, so it was very interesting to try to write them and create their personalities in such a short fic. I hope I did them justice.
> 
> Thank you so much for the prompt!


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